Mississippi River Bridge to “Touch Land” Thursday

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ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) - Contractors planned to 'touch land' on the new Mississippi River Bridge, starting Thursday morning.

The new bridge will connect with Interstate 70. That connection hasn't been built, yet. That all changes, starting today. Andrew Gates, of the Missouri Department of Transportation is expected workers to start lifting the steel that will connect the bridge to the Missouri approach.

From Bommarito Automotive Skyfox, you could see that the only part of the bridge supporting the driving deck was under water. So, Gates called this latest step "touching land", and for the first time. Contractors planned to start the build around mid-morning Thursday.

MoDOT officials tried to get this work started a little earlier. But, contractors had to wait out a snowstorm from the week before.